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Mrs McCourt was then forced to give birth on the street with the help of Mr Rudovic.

Little Ila was born five minutes later. Speaking from her bed in Lennox Hill Hospital, Mrs McCourt said: “A lady walked out five metres in front and hailed a cab and got into it.

“And I went ‘No, that’s my cab, I want that cab’.”

Her daughter weighed 7lb 6oz and the couple gave her the middle name Isabelle, after a caring passer-by who helped keep Mrs McCourt and her newborn warm, until an ambulance arrived.

Mrs McCourt is keen to track down the woman after losing her phone number.

She added: “Ila’s name was meant to be Ila Polly, but now she is Ila Isabelle.”

Husband Cian McCourt, 40, who works for New York law firm A&L Goodbody, was stuck in traffic when he was told the news but was able to arrive in time to find his wife and newborn daughter on the street, shortly after the birth.

Mr McCourt said: “I was running up 3rd Avenue and saw the crowd on the corner. I knew instantly that it was Polly.”